SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE
DIEU ET MON DROIT

NEW ZEALAND
GOVERNMENT GAZETTE.

Published by Authority.

All Public Notifications which appear in this Gazette, with any Official Signature thereunto
annezed, are to be considered as Official Communications made to those Persons to whom they may
relate.

By His Excellency's Command,
ANDREW SINCLAIR, Colonial Secretary.

VOL. VII. AUCKLAND, TUESDAY, JULY 20, 1847. No. 13.

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Auckland, 19th July, 1847.

HIS Excellency the Governor has been
pleased to direct the publication of the
following despatches, for general informa-
tion.

By His Excellency's command,
ANDREW SINCLAIR,
Colonial Secretary,

FINANCE.

(No. 46.)
COPY OF A DESPATCH FROM LIEUT.-GOVERNOR GREY
TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD STANLEY.

Government House, Auckland, May 12, 1846.

MY LORD,

ONE of the most important duties which has
been imposed upon me by your lordship, is the
inquiry into the sources from which a sufficient
revenue may be most readily and beneficially
raised in this country. I now propose to place
before your Lordship the principles upon which
I think, the future general financial arrange-
ments of this country should be conducted; and
the reasons which have led me to form these
conclusions.

In the first place, I have assumed the amount
of the European population resident in these is-
lands to be 12,000 souls, and the amount of the
native population to be 120,000 souls; these es-
timates are not founded upon accurate returns,
and probably are each of them, especially the
latter, far below the real amount of the popula-
tions which they respectfully indicate: they are
however, sufficiently accurate for the purposes
of the present inquiry.

So great a disproportion existing between the
European and native population, one is driven
to the inevitable conclusion, that if any attempt
is made (as was formerly the case) to raise a re-
venue by direct taxation upon the property of the
European population alone, from which the na-
tives are exempted, that it will be found impossi-
ble to raise the funds requisite to provide the es-
tablishments required for the protection and
good government of the natives, indeed it would
be essentially unjust and ruinous to the European
population to attempt to do so.

Hence in endeavouring to raise a revenue from
taxation of this nature, the Government must ei-
ther, as it has hitherto done, forego all intention
of maintaining such establishments, or must look
to the British Treasury to supply funds adequate
for their support.

It may be said that the former system should
be amended, by subjecting the property of Euro-
peans and natives alike to direct taxation; but
this would be to suppose that we were in actual
occupation of the whole island; that establish-
ments existed which could collect these taxes,
and that there was a reasonable probability that
the large warlike native population, who are as
yet for the greater part ignorant of European
laws and customs, and impatient of control,
would submit to taxes of this nature, every one
of which suppositions is directly contrary to
fact.

Whilst these objections, and many others of
nearly equal weight, exist to any attempt to raise
a revenue from direct taxation, I entertain no
doubt whatever that a revenue which will amply
suffice to defray all the charges (excepting those
of military and naval protection) which need be
incurred, in providing establishments, in all res-
pects adequate for the good government and
complete control of both races, can in the course
of two or three years be provided by indirect
taxation, that is, by the imposition of moderate
duties of customs upon all imported goods.

Since the termination of the war in January
last, the receipts of Customs have continued ra-
pidly to increase, and a trade of great import-